Jimmie Johnson suffers broken hand in crash; status uncertain for Sunday IndyCar race

Jimmie Johnson has been diagnosed with a broken right hand but is trying to push through to race in IndyCar's Long Beach Grand Prix on Sunday.

The seven-time NASCAR champion said in a tweeted video Saturday morning that he won't know his status for the rest of the weekend until he tries driving.

«I worked with my race team and we've created a nice little carbon-fiber splint to support the area that's injured,» Johnson said. "… I feel very good about things now, I'm willing to try practice, but I really won't know until I'm out there in the practice session and feel the demands of the race car to know if I can go further and into the race."

Morning update from Long Beach pic.twitter.com/Oymdxo9Kdn

Johnson made his update before Saturday's practice, during which he crashed again as his car wound up in the Turn 1 tire barrier.

He suffered the injury in practice Friday when his car drove into the tire barrier on Turn 5. He did not remove his hands from the steering wheel — standard practice in open-wheel racing but not common in stock cars.

The force from the collision caused his hands to snap off the wheel, and Johnson's in-car camera showed him shaking his right hand. He did not participate in the IndyCar driver autograph session and was inside the Chip Ganassi Racing hauler with medical staff.

Ganassi has potential replacements in Long Beach because his four sports car drivers compete in the IMSA race Saturday. Sebastien Bourdais would be a likely candidate as he just stepped away from IndyCar this season.

Johnson, in his second season of IndyCar after nearly 20 years in NASCAR, is coming off a career-best finish of sixth at Texas that energized an audience eager to see him race in next month's Indianapolis 500.

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